!!! 4 Tips to speed up your windows xp !!!

[Grinder]

No I would much rather be reminded every god damned 10 seconds to
activate it, take the tour, or to install a virus scanner with the
only way to disable these balllons being registry hack. Lazy bastards
at Microsoft couldn't even put an easily accessable option to turn the
bubbles off or at least reduce the frequency that they come up and
block my screen. Not everyone needs to be prodded in the ass every 10
seconds.

Don't brand me as a Microsoft apologist, but you can shut those messages up.

1) Activation alert: You know this already, but just activate the
product. Although I think the activation process has done more to
aggravate customers than curb piracy, I personally have not had any
difficulty using it.

2) Take the tour: Start the tour, but quit out of it sometime after it
asks if you want the full multimedia version or the "plain Jane"
version. It's been my experience that it won't ask you about the tour
again.

3) Virus scanner: Open up the security panel, or whatever they call that
thing that pops up when you click on the little alert shield. Click
"Details" under the virus scanner heading, and tell it that you're using
a virus scanner it doesn't know anything about. It won't claim you're
protected, but it won't whine about it either.

 

[kony]

_________________________________________________

It was interesting to find out that sysdm.cpl launches the System tool
from Control Panel. Is there a list of similar files which launch
various Windows functions?

Yep there are a few of 'em.
http://users.accesscomm.ca/gbraun/wxp/shortcut.htm

.... or Google for a couple potential-entries to find lists,
for example,

http://www.google.com/search?q=services.msc+sysdm.cpl

 

[ElJerid]

Don't brand me as a Microsoft apologist, but you can shut those messages
up.

1) Activation alert: You know this already, but just activate the product.
Although I think the activation process has done more to aggravate
customers than curb piracy, I personally have not had any difficulty using
it.

2) Take the tour: Start the tour, but quit out of it sometime after it
asks if you want the full multimedia version or the "plain Jane" version.
It's been my experience that it won't ask you about the tour again.

3) Virus scanner: Open up the security panel, or whatever they call that
thing that pops up when you click on the little alert shield. Click
"Details" under the virus scanner heading, and tell it that you're using a
virus scanner it doesn't know anything about. It won't claim you're
protected, but it won't whine about it either.

For easy tweaking of XP, you could try XP Lite, or go through the Black
Viper recommandations (www.blackviper.com)

 

[Killian]

Umm.. take a peek at the check the boxes shown under the "Taskbar and
Start Menu" listing of Microsoft's "Tweak UI". See where it says
"Enable Balloon Tips"? Uncheck it.

Ummm....Tweak UI DOESN't come with Windows XP. As I said MS was to
god damned lazy to make it an option without a registry hack or having
to download some extra program. Not everyone has internet access.
Quit trying to defend some really stupid people at Microsoft.

 

[Killian]

Don't brand me as a Microsoft apologist, but you can shut those messages up.

1) Activation alert: You know this already, but just activate the
product. Although I think the activation process has done more to
aggravate customers than curb piracy, I personally have not had any
difficulty using it.

I have been trying reformatting and trying different drivers and
configurations for 40 days trying to find what works best for me.
If I activated right away I'd be aon the phone with MS every week
begging for re-activation. Who would activate without waiting close
to 30 days to make sure their system is stable?

 

[Joe Bleaux]

Hi Folks,

After seeing the 5 bullshit tips on the microsoft website I thought I'd
share with you some real improvement tips for those people that don't know
these tips yet Here goes:

Ofcourse I am always willing to listen to people who know other major or
small performance tweaks

I know one: upgrade to Windows 2000.


Joe

 

[Arthur Hagen]

2. Disable "dll cache" (command line command needed). [chop]
2. Very bad for performance. The dll cache is a folder on the
harddisk... How stupid ! At least my dutch dictionary says: "a cache
is a fast storage place etc". Harddisk are not fast at all lol..
especially not for many i/o operations. Anyway it seems windows
back's up commonly used dll's, compressess them, encrypts them,
decompressess them, decrypts them, and compares them, and loading and
storing ofcourse... All in all very much wastefull overhead. My dll
cache was once 500 MB !!! After disabling it (setting it to 1 MB) the
performance of my system skyrocketed... like no longer long stupid
harddisks spins/waits... the DLL cache probably got so full because I
compressed my drive and later decompressed it etc... windows got all
confused and didn't recognize the dll's and starting comparing them
to the dll cache or something... I dont know what the cause is or if
it's normal or not... the only thing I know is that the DLL cache is
a performance killer !

That might indeed be the only thing you know. One of the things you
*don't* know is what the DLLCache is actually used for. Windows does
*not* use the DLLCache during 'normal' operations, but only when
installing something, uninstalling something, or when running SFC
(System File Checker).
Since you're Dutch, I can understand that you don't know the original
meaning of the word "cache", which has nothing to do with speeding
things up, but is a place of storage. And that's exactly what DLLCache
is.
If a program you install overwrites a system DLL with an older and
incompatible version, the correct file can be restored from this
storage.
The cache is compressed (if using NTFS) to reduce disk space. Also,
with modern PCs, the CPU is so much faster than the hard drives anyhow
that it's *faster* to uncompress highly compressible files than to read
them uncompressed.

It's *highly* recommended that if you have installed multiple products,
you then open a command prompt and enter "sfc /SCANNOW" (you need your
installation media handy).

3. Auto backup/restore points are totaly ****ing useless and waste
harddisk space and processing power etc... A better solution is to
use a special backup utility like norton ghost etc... for full system
backup and easy restore... and/or a simply backup your data with
winzip etc.

Ghost can't revert registry entries, for one thing. It makes
*snapshots*, and, most importantly, you have to take the system down to
do it. That's even less efficient. Instead of a minor slowdown every
now and then, you lose hours while manually performing a Ghost snapshot.
WinZip can't correctly handle files that are locked ("in use"),
including your registry. It wasn't designed to do that job, and doesn't
do it well. It also can't handle NTFS streams or advanced protections
(WinRAR can, though), so restore from a zip file, and the files might
have wrong ownership and permissions, which might screw you up Big Time.

Unless you have a good backup program, the backup/restore point can be
what saves you. Ghost and WinZip are *not* backup programs, though.

4. Last access time... everytime a file or folder is accessed it
needs to be updated requiring more harddisk i/o operations... this is
a small performance improvement but still For some apps it can
help a lot =D For example when a app needs to build a folder tree...
etc.. it's much faster now

On the other hand, system utilities that speed up the system by looking
at the access time of applications won't work, which causes a
*slowdown*. One example is disk defragmenters which place files
accessed recently near the start of the disk and files not accessed for
a long time near the end. Since the start of the disk usually is about
twice as fast as the end, and sometimes more, this makes sense.

Ofcourse I am always willing to listen to people who know other major
or small performance tweaks Dont bother about posting the
graphical wizard to turn off special graphic effects... I know that
one already lol.. that's pretty easy thx to the wizard but don't
hestitate if you know anything else

Sure: Don't post this to a.c.p.videocards.nvidia unless it contains
information directly relevant to nVidia video cards. Same goes for
a.c.p.mainboard.asus. You'll slow down our PCs when we have to download
your irrelevant (and largely incorrect) posts.

HTH, HAND,

 

[kony]

I have been trying reformatting and trying different drivers and
configurations for 40 days trying to find what works best for me.
If I activated right away I'd be aon the phone with MS every week
begging for re-activation. Who would activate without waiting close
to 30 days to make sure their system is stable?

Who would install the operating system while they're
suspecting the system ISN'T stable?

If you install the OS and it's not stable, it likely needs
wiped and reinstalled. Run memtest86 for a day prior to any
OS install, some people do that as a standard procedure and
it is better done before anything else rather than chasing
ghosts later that were caused by file corruption.

 

[Killian]

Who would install the operating system while they're
suspecting the system ISN'T stable?

What a stupid question. Reread my message. Sometimes drivers
installed AFTER the operating system are not stable and need to be
upgraded or even downgraded. You aren't going to know this until
AFTER ou install the operating system. Trying to clean out old
drivers and reloading over remnants of them is asking for disaster.
Better to reformat and do a clean install. Who would activate right
away when you have 30 days? Of course you have the option to have WX_
remond you every few days but when you select that option it still
reminds you every few seconds.

If you install the OS and it's not stable, it likely needs
wiped and reinstalled. Run memtest86 for a day prior to any
OS install, some people do that as a standard procedure and
it is better done before anything else rather than chasing
ghosts later that were caused by file corruption.

Read my response above. Everyone runs memtest86+ and Prime95 to check
their hardware but they don't do a goddamned thing to check your
drivers.

 

[kony]

What a stupid question. Reread my message.

I did. You must be having a bad day or else dense to write
"stupid question" when your post clearly make this a
possibility. Perhaps you MEANT something different, but
didn't WRITE something different.

Sometimes drivers
installed AFTER the operating system are not stable and need to be
upgraded or even downgraded. You aren't going to know this until
AFTER ou install the operating system.

True. Which driver you use does not pose a problem for
activation. Even if it did, if you had THAT many driver
changes to make it's far more likely the drivers aren't the
problem.

Trying to clean out old
drivers and reloading over remnants of them is asking for disaster.

Nonsense. Plenty of people do it fine. One notible
exception is ATI video drivers, but there are cleaner tools
to be rid of that. Otherwise, it is not a problem.

Better to reformat and do a clean install.

Only if you don't know how to fix the problem and hope it
randomly disappears by chance rather than logical steps to
resolve it. Even so, this hypothetical scenario is being
stretched to the point where it's mostly false.

Who would activate right
away when you have 30 days?

Who would need 30 days to get their system stable?
You should know with certainty if it's OK within a couple
days, if not sooner, after installing the OS. If you just
want to wait- go right ahead. Plenty of people use XP, it
has not been a problem to activate right away for them,
perhaps after any stability and integrity testing which
certainly doesn't take 30 days.

Of course you have the option to have WX_
remond you every few days but when you select that option it still
reminds you every few seconds.


Read my response above.

yes, but I meant if you haven't tested the memory BEFORE
installing the OS. NOT a matter of installing it THEN
seeing how it is. You should not ever have to reinstall the
OS if you have file integrity. IE- not corrupt files.
Competely different situation than merely having a bad
driver installed.

Everyone runs memtest86+ and Prime95 to check
their hardware but they don't do a goddamned thing to check your
drivers.

I suggest you make an attempt to resolve driver problems, as
once you get adept at it you'll realize the OS reinstall
shouldn't be necessary.